The company that built the CoreFLS system got $227,620 for beating a deadline, a report says.
By PAUL DE LA GARZA and STEPHEN NOHLGREN
Published May 11, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - The company that built a troubled computer system at Bay Pines VA Medical Center was paid a $227,620 "incentive bonus" for finishing on time, despite warnings the system wasn't ready, according to a congressional report released Monday.
The company, BearingPoint, also was paid $500,000 a month in travel expenses between December and March, and it appears that several VA staff members working on the project got bonuses of about $6,000, according to the interim report by the minority staff of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
It's still unclear why BearingPoint was hired for the project, because the VA has not provided documentation to back up that decision, said the report, submitted to Florida Sen. Bob Graham, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
The five-page report echoed the findings of a preliminary investigation released in March by the Veterans Affairs inspector general.
Both investigations, prompted by reports in the St. Petersburg Times, said it was difficult to document why BearingPoint got the contract for the so-called Core Financial and Logistics System, or CoreFLS.
The investigations also pointed to the lack of computer training hospital staff members received. Although the project was launched in 1998, the Senate report said hands-on training was not required until the beginning of this year.
"VA has only provided crude documentation. Staff have been told that notes and supporting documentation from the technical evaluation of the proposals have not been retained," the report said.
Jill Greenburg, a Graham spokeswoman, said the senator would not comment on the report because it is preliminary.
CoreFLS was developed to track and control finances, vendor payouts and supply inventories within the VA. CoreFLS was scheduled to be rolled out nationally in February, but VA Secretary Anthony Principi has put the project on hold pending an assessment of the system by Carnegie Mellon University.
In sounding the alarm, the VA inspector general warned project managers on Oct. 2 that "several risks had not been mitigated" with CoreFLS, which has a budget of $472-million.
The VA and BearingPoint took the system live four days later. Bay Pines officials have complained that the system is flawed and that it has contributed to scores of surgery delays at the hospital.
The Senate report shows that BearingPoint had a monetary incentive to move quickly. The contract between the VA and BearingPoint called for an "incentive bonus" if the computer system went live by Nov. 11.
The report found that the VA paid BearingPoint $227,620 in December after the CoreFLS system became operational at Bay Pines, according to the report.
The report also said investigators were examining bonuses of roughly $6,000 each paid to VA employees "affiliated with the CoreFLS project."
VA officials did not respond to messages seeking comment. BearingPoint spokesman John Schneidawind said the company had not reviewed the report and could not comment.
Bay Pines is the target of multiple federal inquiries. Besides CoreFLS, investigators are looking into allegations of mismanagement.
